iTunes App Store Affiliate Links Using LinkShare Explained

You can resell iTunes App Store items using the LinkShare service. I haven’t had much luck generating links to iPhone applications using any third party applications or using LinkShare’s link building interface either so I imagine others are having issues as well. Below I will explain the links themselves and explain how to build iTunes App Store LinkShare URL’s manually. If you have the base link then you can manually switch out your LinkShare reseller ID and the iTunes App Store product ID to build the links yourself. There are a bunch of other variables built in so I will try to explain what they mean and if they need to be changed.

LinkShare iTunes App Store Example URL’s:

Below are two examples of what your LinkShare links may look like for iTunes App Store applications. Both of the examples below are using my LinkShare ID and the iTunes App Store product ID of RedLaser which is a UPC bar code scanner available for your iPhone.

Notice that the second URL is much shorter than the first however they are both linking to exactly the same product in the iTunes App Store. When you click on either link it will launch iTunes, go directly to the RedLaser application, and then refresh the page the URL was clicked from. You can test this by clicking the link titled EXAMPLE next to each example’s title above. The reason the two are different is because the first link is using HTML friendly characters for items that may not display properly in HTML. The ones used in the first link are listed below.

LinkShare Link HTML Character Replacements:

bash

%253A --> :

%252F -->/

%253F --> ?

%253D --> =

%2526 -->&

Removing these will make the link much shorter and make it much easier to read as well as understand. There are two parts to the link which include the LinkShare variables and then the iTunes variables. These are broken out below and explained to the best of my knowledge.

LinkShare Affiliate URL Variables:

The LinkShare variables are id, offerid, type, subid, tmpid, and RD_PARM1. Each of these variables are listed below with a brief explanation.

id:This is your LinkShare affliate ID.

offerid:This can specify various offers via LinkShare. The actual variable will be a number such as 7097.10000034. In that example the 7097 would reference the offer and 10000034 would specify the specific link in the offer.

type: This is the type of link that has been clicked on such as banner or text. I believe that type 3 is text.

subid:If there are multiple sites under one LinkShare reseller ID then this variable would specify which one sent the traffic through LinkShare.

tmpid:I am not exactly sure what the tmpid is but I have not had an issue with keeping it the same. I imagine it is some type of other identifier.

RD_PARM1:This is the actual variable that specifies the link to the iTunes App Store.

iTunes App Store URL Variables:

The iTunes App Store URL variables are id, mt, and partnerID. The most important variable here to worry about is the id itself which is the id of the application. In our case the application ID is 312720263 for RedLaser. I assume the partnerID is related to LinkShare and mt is some iTunes related variable.

So to manually build your links you can use the second example above and swap out the LinkShare Affiliate ID and the Application ID.

I was referring to the iTunes Link Maker program that is available through LinkShare’s iTunes account. It turns out the correct coding has reappeared today. Maybe iTunes was doing some upgrading.

I’ve also generated an affiliate link to an app in the app. store using the Link Maker. It seems to go to the app correctly. Have you had problems with the app links generated by Link Maker? If so, what are the problems?

Maybe I have not been using this correctly then because I am never able to find the applications when performing a search. Could you list step by step specifically how you are creating the links through linkshare to iPhone applications starting with logging into LinkShare? Whenever I perform a search it says the application is not found but I am wondering if I don’t have the correct fields displaying in the drop downs or something. I appreciate any information you can provide for generating these links via linkshare.com. Because it was a pain for me I just started generating them manually because it seemed easier.

I have an account in LinkShare with iTunes. I go to my account in LinkShare. Click on Links in the navbar. Click on Get Links in the drop down list. Click on Apple iTunes in the Advertiser list. In the section called “iTunes Create Links” click on Link Maker Tool. You’ll get the iTunes Link Maker. Now this is crucial: After entering the search keyword, click on Applications in the Media Type drop down list then click on “Search.” If you leave the Media Type as “All Results” you won’t get the app listed. I don’t understand why that is. Hopefully they’ll fix it. I searched on the app called Cadence (we co-promote). If I don’t click on “Applications” media type, I get lots of Cadence items but not the app. I only get the app when I put “Applications” in the Media Type. I hope this works for you too.

Awesome! This works perfect for me. I had been trying to use the sub tab “Product LinkFinder” right next to the “Get Links” tab. Using exactly the same technique but for category they don’t have “Applications” as an option so I was using “iPhone Apps”. Thanks a bunch for listing out the steps it is much appreciated as I think I will use this method now instead of manually modifying the links like I have been doing.

No problem. It is because of people like you sharing back that it makes it easy to write articles every night for free. :)

Did you get the email from LinkShare today titled “iTunes Affiliate Notice”? In it they explain the difference in link structure and I assume they were initially implementing or testing when you noticed the original issue you posted! If you didn’t get the email let me know and I will forward it to you or post it in the comments here.

Can someone please help me out? I’ve been searching all over the web for this info. I got my iTunes affiliate email and it says
“Please remember to replace hdLeWWZvkZd with your own Affiliate ID to ensure that all links track properly.”
Everywhere I read about it, it’s recommended to create a link on Linkshare to find your personal affiliate id, but when I create an iTunes link on Linkshare, I’m getting this same id. Where am I supposed to find the correct id?
Thanks very much–ths is driving me crazy!

I would suggest generating a link and clicking it a couple times. See if by the next day some stats show up in the Linkshare interface. If so then your affiliate ID is tracking properly. It should be the id=SOMETHINGHERE. The part after id= will be your affiliate ID.

Hope that helps. You could also generate a link via the linkshare.com interface and post it in a response here and I can tell you your affiliate ID from that.

Hi Alex
Sorry to bother again! Thought you might be able to help with this new problem. Wasted more time last night trying to figure out how to create an imix with songs that I have not purchased from iTunes. I read that I could do this and then publish the imix, from which I want to create a link and put on my website. However, I can’t drag and drop songs from the store into the playlist I’m making. Do you know why this would not be working? Do I want to buy all these songs?
Thanks very much! Melissa

I’ve created a linkshare account, and have been approved by Apple. I cannot seem to find the tool to create custom iTunes links, unless I google it and go directly through apple’s site, in which case my affiliate ID will not show up.

1. Where do I find my iTunes affiliate ID within the Link Share website?
2. How do I link to particular songs with my affiliate ID?